The Chicago Bears have a championship caliber defense with a developmental quarterback. They have a fine line to walk between developing their quarterback and competing with their championship defense
Listen, I am still not calling it yet for Mitch Trubisky. He can make it in the NFL. The fact of the matter is that at this point, he is the piece of the Chicago Bears that is holding the group back.
The Chicago Bears probably should have expected this when they drafted Trubisky. They did not draft him because he was pro ready, they drafted him because he had the highest ceiling. Then, the team stumbled into a championship level defense with the acquisition of Khalil Mack.
This is a delicate spot to be in because as much as you want to develop Trubisky, putting a lot on his plate is going to lead to growing pains. We have seen this first hand.
Of course, the team could simplify a lot of things.
They could lead with the run more, control the clock and field position and let the defense do the thing. However, that does not help the growth of Trubisky much regarding making your long-term investment at quarterback a better processor.
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Matt Nagy has talked extensively about being aggressive. He has always said that if Trubisky is taking a shot down the field, he will always tell him to keep firing. However, how many times will Trubisky fire into double coverage, or across his body before you slowly start to take the football out of his hands.
If the defense were average, or even good, it would be obvious that the team continues to expose Trubisky to an entire playbook and continue to have him make multiple reads in games where he comes out firing.
However, this defense has the potential to be in the excellent to the elite category. At what point do you hope your quarterback makes a quick read and then uses his legs or quickly checks down.
It is not the fun, wide open offense we were expecting but it can work. While you hear the name Peyton Manning, he was a turnover machine with no quads leading to a weak arm. The Broncos offense ranked 25h in DVOA and won a Super Bowl. Ask Manning; they took the ball out his hands to win that Super Bowl.
Blake Bortles was one quarter away from making a Super Bowl with this very strategy. In fact, Blake Borltes was better in 2017 than Manning was in 2015. A Super Bowl can be won with a bubble wrapped version of Mitch Trubisky. The question is when do you stop focus on developing, and start focusing on winning?